Danell Leyva, Silver medal in World Gymnastics Championship. (born in Havana) ** Danell Leyva, medalla de plata en el Campeonato Mundial de Gimnasia en China. (2014)
The Cuban-American Danell Leyva won the silver medal in the specialty of parallel bars in the XLV World Gymnastics Championships, which concluded Sunday October 12, 2014 in Nanning, China.
Leyva, 22, who lives in Miami, reached a score of 15,933 points and was behind the Ukrainian champions Oleg Verniaiev (16,125 points), gold medalist, Japan’s Ryohei Kato (15.666) won the bronze.
Danell Johan Leyva (born October 30, 1991) is a Cuban-American gymnast. He is the 2011 U.S national all-around gold medalist and the 2011 world champion on the parallel bars. He is also a Bronze Medal winner in the 2012 London Olympics in the Men’s All Around and now silver medal in parallel bars in the XLV World Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China.
He is a specialist on parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar, having his own signature move (jam-dislocate-hop to undergrips) on the latter.
He has a sister, Dayanis Mesa, who is a television host. His stepfather and coach, Yin Alvarez (famous for his sideline theatrics during Danell’s routines) and mother, Maria Gonzalez (his biological father, Johann Leyva, lives in Spain), were both members of Cuba’s national gymnastics team. Gonzalez and Leyva defected to Miami when Leyva was a year old. Alvarez defected by swimming across the Rio Grande to the United States while his team was competing in Mexico. Together, Alvarez and Gonzalez opened a gym in Miami several years later, and they married in 2001.
Junior career.
Leyva competed at his first Winter Cup in 2006. He went on to compete in the Junior Division of the US National Championships (known as the Visa Championships) where he came 1st All-Around and won Gold on Floor Exercise and Horizontal Bar, and tied for silver on Parallel Bars.
In 2008, at the Junior National Championships, Leyva won the all-around, high bar, parallel bars, and pommel horse titles. Leyva was also the High Bar champion at the 2008 Pan American Gymnastics Championships in Argentina. He went on to be chosen as one of the Juniors to be part of the 2008 Pacific Rim Championship team and competed in San Jose. There the US won team gold, won gold in All-Around and Bronze on Parallel Bars in the Junior Division finals.
Senior career.
In 2009, he became the youngest member of the U.S. national Senior team at age 17, and won the gold medal on the horizontal bar and the silver medal on the parallel bars. He was chosen as one of 4 US male gymnasts to compete at the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in London. He qualified to the Horizontal Bar final where he placed 4th.
Leyva won medals on several events at the Winter Cup, then winning 1st place at the American FIG World Cup (American Cup) in New York City. Leyva came 2nd in All-Around at the US Visa National Championships in Saint Louis, behind John Orozco. He defended his National titles on Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar. He went onto compete in the Olympic Trials in San Jose where he came first with his combined scores from Visa Championships and the 2 days of trials. This secured him an automatic berth onto the US Olympic Team with Orozco who finished behind him in second place overall. The next day the official selection for the team was announced that Leyva and Orozco would be joined in London by US teammates Jonathan Horton, Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton with their 2011 Worlds teammates Alex Naddour, Steven Legendre and Chris Brooks as alternates. Leyva earned the bronze medal in the Individual All-Around at the Olympics in London.
Sponsorships.
In 2013, Danell signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with adidas gymnastics. Fellow US Olympic Team members Jake Dalton, McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber are also “all in” for adidas gymnastics.
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Arnoldo Varona, Editor.